Diabetes Mellitus has become a serious national health problem that has reached epidemic proportions. In the year 2000, for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 16 million Americans, i.e., 5.4% of the total national population, were known to suffer from diabetes. They additionally estimated that another 5.5 million people with the disease were as yet undiagnosed.
The major types of diabetes include insulin-dependent and insulin-independent varieties. In the so-called “type I” diabetes, there is a primary loss of insulin secretion related to either deficiency, destruction or inactivity of pancreatic beta cells. In “type II” diabetes, there may be adequate insulin secretion, but there is a varying degree of insulin resistance in the peripheral target tissues. Therefore, the cells respond as if there is inadequate insulin present. The incidence of type II diabetes is known to be increasing in the U.S. military veteran population. Of about 3.2 million veterans who have utilized the Veterans Administration health care system, almost 555,000 were for the care of diabetes, at an annual cost of more than four billion dollars.
The most important clinical issues regarding diabetes and its appropriate control revolve around the disease complications rather than the abnormality in serum glucose itself. The most important complications involve diseases of small blood vessels—specifically in relation to cardiovascular disease, polyneuropathy, proliferative retinopathy and renal vascular disease.
It appears that most of the complications induced by adult onset diabetes (such as polyneuropathy or cataract formation) are related to excess free radicals and oxidative stress. Therefore, it is plausible that the use of multiple antioxidants may be beneficial in reducing these disease-related complications. For example, natural alpha lipoic acid and its metabolite dihydroxy lipoic acid have been shown to prevent many of the biologic changes induced by diabetes. It has also been shown that alpha lipoic acid reduces chemically induced diabetes in animal models by 50%.
It has further been proposed that the experimental findings noted above have as their foundation the involvement of nitric oxide, a nitrogen derived free radical and other reactive oxygen species. Therefore, it becomes increasingly rational that multiple antioxidants including alpha lipoic acid will be beneficial in the prevention and treatment of type I diabetes. It is likely that the mechanism of this action will involve some degree of protection of the pancreatic beta cells against free radical damage from excess oxidative stress.
In type II diabetes, the major problem is insulin resistance in the target tissues. Alpha lipoic acid can benefit this situation by improving glucose utilization in peripheral tissue by stimulating glucose transport and uptake. Additionally, the glycation of proteins has been identified as a possible factor responsible for other complications associated with diabetes. In a similar beneficial manner alpha lipoic acid has been shown to reduce this protein enzyme effect.
In light of the considerations set forth above, therefore, there has been a long-felt need by those working in this field for an antioxidant-based formulation capable of reducing, if not entirely overcoming the above-described obstacles to the management of Diabetes Mellitus.